"Bring them in here," commanded the king as he sat on the Iron Throne. After ten years since his appointment, much has changed in his stature and attitude. The built physique he once had after many years of smithing ever since he could remember has now reduced to a more slender form due to the melancholy that started just a few months before his crowning. Although he has been in depression ever since then, this did not seem to interfere with the ruling of his kingdom. All was not lost as he had a daughter that he treats as an inspiration; though he had admitted to himself even she was not enough.
The guardsmen brought upon the king a man adorn clothes much different from anyone you could see in Westeros. He wore pants similar to anyone but the others were strange to them, jacket made of tweed, dress shirt, and a bowtie. Two men grabbed the green-eyed man with dark long hair and large chin him by his arms so as not to escape, but his slender appearance would have made it impossible to anyway. Then the man started pleading, as fast as lightning,
"Listen please, your highness, there must be some way you could release me, you see I'm not even from here, and by not 'not from here' I mean not really anywhere here where you are, though I doubt I could explain myself it would be a long story—" The man was rudely interrupted when one of the guardsmen who held him punched him in the gut. "Well that's not nice." The man managed to mumble. The guardsman was about to punch him again but was halted by the king.
"Stop!" he bellowed. "Let the man, speak. Guards, let him go." The guardsmen nodded at the king's instruction but did not do so too kindly. They let go of the man vigorously and let him fall on the steps leading to the king which hurt him in his side.
"Thank you, your highness, I guess," the strange man began. "But I really have no idea how to explain myself in terms that you would understand, maybe you could ask me questions or…"
"What does that box behind you do?" the king asked, gesturing at the blue box labelled as a 'police box.' "I was told it was bigger on the inside, what kind of witchcraft do you do?"
"Ah! You understand witchcraft, lovely. This would be slightly easier for me to explain now." He remarked managing to pull off a smile. "Well your highness, that box serves as my vessel, and I have been transported in this dimension by mistake."
"You're a wizard from another dimension?" the king stood upright from his throne, with his full interest on the man now.
"Yes, also I travel through space and time, and—" but he was cut short by the king.
"Time? I believe I may have concocted a deal regarding your release."
"Oh boy, I know where this is going," the strange man whispered to himself.
"But I must speak with you privately," the king stated. "Guards, bring him to the guest chambers." The strange man spoke no more as he was worried for whatever intention the king has with time, time was not meant to be messed with regardless of whether it was for good or ill intentions.
The strange man sat patiently in his chambers, growing worrisome as time slowly passed by. The king could be plotting things at that moment for a battle he might have lost before and the strange man did not want for that to happen, he was in a different dimension, imagine what kind of crack in time could that cause. The door from his chambers, then swung open, and the king emerged without any guardsmen with him. The strange man peered out the door and so no one else, he thought this was an odd thing for a king to do. He could kill the king, not that he would, but he was a king, a powerful one at that yet here he was unaccompanied with zero defence.
"How are you faring?" the king asked.
"Lovely, your highness. Thank you for the heartily meal, it was really good."
"And what is your name?" the king asked as he paced in front of him.
"The Doctor, do you want to take my seat, sire?" the strange man offered and was about to stand up from his seat when the king ceased him from doing so.
"I'm fine." The king replied. "Doctor? Doctor who?"
"Exactly."
"Ah, I understand. A man as powerful as you to travel through space and time must keep his identity concealed."
"Truly," The Doctor nodded. "But can we cut to the chase, your highness? Every second that passes by increases my concern of what you want with my power to travel through time. Surely you must understand that time is not to be messed with, even the slightest of change in the past can change everything in the present."
"I have thought of that thoroughly, Doctor, and the weight of its changes. And not to worry, I will release you whether you choose to aide me with my request or not. I just had to take my chances." The Doctor was amused, surely he thought they would torture him until he agreed to help, but that's not what's happening. The Doctor now realized that it may not be a lost battle that the king wanted to go back to. It was something else, something most dear.
"Alright, your highness. I will listen," the Doctor replied. The king nodded and began to tell his tale,
"Before I became king there was a great battle, obviously our side have won that, but of course there were consequences. A lot of lives have been claimed that day, many great lives," the king looked down on his feet before he continued, "Including my beloved."
"Was she held at ransom?" the Doctor queried.
"No," the king pulled up a smile. "She was amongst the great men who battled for our cause. It was only a few months after our daughter was born, Aryanna. She was not in full condition to fight but she was stubborn, I have always known that since I met her when she was only nine. But that strong point of hers was also her weakness."
"Are you planning to go back in time to save her life? Because I'm afraid I can't do that, your highness; that would be too much for time could handle stretching."
"I understand that," he pursed his lips. "But I wasn't there when she died. Though it was never legitimized because she wanted for it to happen after we have won the battle, I made a promise that I would be by her for better or worse, and until death do we part. But I wasn't there for her, and ever since then, I've been disheartened. All I want is to be with her until the end, just like I promised her when she was nine. Can you do that for me Doctor?" The king's eyes were full of sorrow though tears refused to be shed. The Doctor was still worried, the last time someone asked him for this everything fell into havoc, and he had trusted, and loved that someone more than he could imagine. Now here's a man who is a complete stranger to him asking for the same thing. The king was wise beyond his years though, the Doctor need not argue with him about understanding space and time, and this man was from the medieval ages. He felt compelled to fulfil his wishes,
"Yes, I suppose I can."
"Magnificent!" the king exclaimed. "Come, I will guide you to where I asked for your vessel to be placed, you wait there I will prepare my battle suit."
The Doctor was left alone in a greater bedroom, his vessel called the TARDIS was there and the room was unguarded. He could've just gone in and escape, but after the greatness the king had shown him he just couldn't cheat. A little while later the king entered the room in full armour.
"You're still here," the king pointed out, astonished.
"Well of course I am."
"I just thought, since I left you alone here in this unguarded room with your vessel at the ready you would have escaped by the time I'd come back, which I would have understood. I felt half-ready to go anyway."
"Nonsense! After that meal, it would just be rude to leave without prior notice." The Doctor joshed the king, and then led him into the TARDIS. The king was awestruck; it truly was bigger on the inside.
"When to then?" the Doctor asked.
"Ten years and three moons ago,"
"And err… what year is that exactly?"
"308 AL, that's after Aegon's Landing."
"Alright, let's see how long the TARDIS can figure that out." The Doctor remarked, then started to fiddle with some buttons, twist some knobs, and pulled some levers here and there, and then finally the TARDIS started making noises. They were dematerializing now, to ten years and three months ago in Westeros. The TARDIS began to shake as if it was falling apart,
"A-A-Are we crashing?" the king shouted nervously.
"No, it just does that!" the Doctor shouted back. "Now hold on to something this is not going to be a pretty landing!" Then soon enough, the TARDIS had landed.
"Are we here now? Did we travel back in time?" the king asked.
"Let's go check outside, shall we?" the Doctor took the lead and opened the door. The skies grey and the surroundings were filled with black smoke. Not far from the clearing where the TARDIS landed, they could hear the sounds of battle transpiring. The king walked out of the door and marvelled at everything.
"This is it. This was exactly how everything looked then!" The king cried out. The Doctor leaned on the door frame and said,
"Well then, go on and do your mission, I'll be waiting for you back here, your highness." The king nodded.
"My names Gendry by the way, Gendry Baratheon." The king told him, before he set out on his mission. The Doctor stared at him as he wandered off back to the battlefield.
"Good luck Ser Gendry."
"Ha! You call that fighting?" a woman's voice cried out in the battlefield as she decapitated her twelfth kill that night. The old gods and the new seemed to be in favour of their side, a few casualties on their side was acknowledged, she was pretty sure that not long enough they'd be the victors.
Gendry struggled his way through to find his beloved, and not long enough he did. She was the only woman in battle so it wouldn't be hard to find her, also when the moment calls for it she'd be calling out boastful words. Gendry smiled, when she did hear where she was. He noticed that someone was aiming in a decapitating stance behind her; this was not the way he was told she died, she took two stabs from a sword and another from an axe to her body by a double-wielder, he painfully recalled. So it was safe for him to save her from this one.
"I got your back m'lady." Said Gendry as he blocked the war axe attack and ultimately stabbing the attacker through the heart.
"Gendry! What in Seven Hells are you doing here? You can't die down here!"
"Neither should you, m'lady." He tried pulling up a smile, how painful it was to say such things when one knows how everything's going to end.
"But you're going to be king, you're more important than I am right now. Oh watch out!" she managed to glide around Gendry and cut off the arm of the attacker then stabbed him through the chest.
"But you're going to be my queen after, m'lady, you're just as important." He couldn't see it clearly through her helm but her ears flushed and made her smile even in the middle of battle.
"Oh stop calling me 'm'lady' and just stick 'em with the pointy end!"
"As m'lady commands." He nodded and continued on the attacks. He felt his heart beat louder, he could hear it even louder than the sound of weapons clanging into each other, it's going to happen any time soon now and he didn't want it to, but he promised the Doctor, and he trusted him on this. Suddenly, at the corner of his eye he finally saw the man who was going to kill his beloved, holding a sword in his left and an axe on the other. He struggled to looked away; pretend he did not see his beloved's murderer just to get things done with. He only wanted to be with Arya until the end. Any time now, he thought. He really couldn't hear anything from that point on, until a loud shriek escaped from Arya's mouth. He witnessed the man stabbed Arya with his sword, swung an axe at her and then stabbed her again with the sword, Arya fell on the ground instantly. Gendry immediately avenged her by breaking his skull in half with that great sword of his; that was the only thing he could do now.
"Arya!" Gendry dove to her side and struggled to pull her out of the rabble. She was majorly injured and would breathe her very last breath any time soon. He managed to drag her to a secluded area, just near their base; Gendry took off her helm and then her armour to at least let her body relax.
"Arya, Arya, look at me!" Gendry stammered. By that time Arya couldn't see clearly anymore.
"C-C-Call," she managed to utter.
"What, what is it?" Gendry could not stop the tears flow from his eyes anymore. Arya raised her hands to reach Gendry's face and tried wiping away his tears.
"C-C-Call m-me, 'm-m-m'lady' one more t-t-time." She smiled.
"I love you… m'lady." Gendry still tried to pull a smile even through his tears, Arya was still smiling and then she moved no more. Gendry remembered the time when they recovered her body, her face was in a state of shock and seemed like it was full of pain. At least she wasn't alone this time, and she'd be smiling when they find her. Gendry wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, he didn't want to let go, but then somebody tapped him on the back, and he saw it was the Doctor.
"You've done well, Gendry. Let's go." Carefully, Gendry laid Arya's body to rest and then he got on his feet. The Doctor handed him a single rose, and then he placed it under her hands.
"Doctor, can we wait until they find her?"
"Yeah. I'm sure we have the time."
Soon after the battle died down and Gendry's side stood, victorious a search party was formed, led by Gendry himself, to find Arya, just as Gendry remembered happening. Gendry watched his past self kneel down in horror as he found Arya's body. The Gendry from the past embraced the body straight away as he wept in sorrow, the present Gendry can still recall accurately everything he felt at that moment. The past Gendry's grief went on for quite a while until he noticed the rose placed on her body. His head searched around, wondering where the person who left that rose was, which he did, unknowingly. He locked eyes with the present Gendry as if he knew he was there, which the present Gendry knew impossible as the Doctor explained how perception filters worked.
"Time to go." The Doctor informed him, and then walked away to where the TARDIS was, Gendry followed behind.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye, Doctor." They were back once again in the great bedroom where they started from. The Doctor was leaning by the TARDIS's door frame again then shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know, maybe not quite, who knows?"
"All the same, thank you for helping me out."
"My pleasure."
"'Til later, Doctor." Said Gendry as he exited the room.
"Yep, 'til later." Said the Doctor now back in his TARDIS, alone. He made the TARDIS dematerialize from Westeros back to his right course and the right dimension. The TV screen in the TARDIS started forming static until he got a clear view of Gendry entering his daughter's room that night where he left him off.
"What is it, father?" her daughter asked. But Gendry didn't give any answer and just pulled her in an embrace. "I love you too, father."
The Doctor smiled, at least he still had a piece of Arya left behind, in the form of their daughter. The smile from his face was soon erased though as the TARDIS began shaking again and was about to land. The Doctor hoped he was in the right dimension now. When the TARDIS landed, he immediately went outside to see for it himself and yes, finally he was in London again, he walked towards a nearby TV shop and looked at the date, August 08, 2012. It was still the year of the Olympics in London, he smiled to himself as he knew who was going to win in every game.
"I told you don't call me that!" A voice came from behind. The Doctor turned around and saw a girl about sixteen pointing a stick and telling off a young man at his early twenties.
"Oh, right you're not a 'young miss' anymore, 'miss' it is then, miss." The young man replied.
"Shut up, I know how to fence!" She poked the stick at the young man's side.
"Ouch! You're not the boss of me, miss." He continued to make fun of her.
"Yeah but my dad is— Hey!" The young man snatched the girl's cap off and ran away with it. "Gendry! Come back here!" and she started to pursue him.
The Doctor smiled, and then he went back in his TARDIS.